United Way of Southeast Missouri faces decision time on grant monies

The United Way of Southeast Missouri's triennial grant application process recently came to an end. Now the organization has to decide, who gets the money?

Elizabeth Shelton, executive director of the United Way of Southeast Missouri, said there are steps it goes through to decide which organizations receive funding from the grants.

"The first step is to make that first cut and the applications that make that first cut, then move to the second step, which is either our volunteers go visit their site or they come in and present to our volunteers," Shelton said.

"We did site visits three years ago, and this year, in part because of COVID, and also because of the time crunch from so many organizations applying, we asked organizations and programs to come in and present that were either new to us or there were questions from our volunteers about their application."

Every three years not-for-profit organizations, such as Habitat for Humanity, Big Brothers Big Sisters and numerous other organizations, are able to apply for funding through various grants the United Way offers to organizations. The amount of money the United Way can disperse to the not-for-profit organizations varies year-to-year and is based on previous campaigns.

Toward the end of April, volunteers on the local United Way's Community Investment Committee will review all of the information from the site visits, panel presentations and applications and decide which not-for-profits will be a part of the United Way network for the next three years until the next grant application cycle and what percentage of funding the organizations will receive.

Shelton said the bulk of the United Way's funding comes from individuals in the community who participate in workplace campaigns or who donate on their own.

Several new not-for-profit organizations applied for grant funding from United Way during the grant application cycle this year, according to Shelton.

"We have had several new organizations that our volunteers are really excited about and also some of our existing partners applied for new programs," she said. "It is always educational to all of us, even those who have been moving in the nonprofit world or in the world of social services. We always learn something new about the needs of our community, and we always learn about new organizations trying to meet those needs."

The United Way of Southeast Missouri is part of an international network of over 1,800 local not-for-profit organizations assisting communities in three key areas -- education, income and health. The United Way of Southeast Missouri's 2020-2021 impact report states the organization has helped 31,187 people from the area, and of the allocated funds, 38% has gone to supporting income, 32% to education and 29% to health.

"Together we move families and individuals toward self-sufficiency and success. We may live in different neighborhoods, hold different beliefs and come from different backgrounds, but we all want to live in a community where every child and adult have an equal opportunity to thrive," according to the organization's impact report.

The United Way received a gold star from Charity Navigator and four stars from Guidestar. Both organizations score and monitor not-for-profits and transparency and accountability.

Shelton said volunteers at United Way of Southeast Missouri are individuals who want to be engaged in their community and to connect the needs of people with resources. Individuals who would like to learn more about the organization or to apply to volunteer can visit the organization's website at www.unitedwayofsemo.org.